Tighten gun laws, restore some sanity

Another mass shooting, another round of calls for tightening gun controls, and another round of mind-numbing foolishness from a gun lobby arguing that more guns will reduce the violence, and that stricter gun laws are a step down a slippery slope toward police-state confiscation of all weapons.

That's America in 2013, plagued by gun violence, and led by a majority of lawmakers too cowardly to do anything but sit on their hands and yammer on about how terrible it would be to deny law-abiding citizens their assault weapons, or to try to keep the mentally ill from obtaining all the guns they want.

It's all increasingly sickening, yet not nearly as stomach-turning as the violence itself, which erupted again in Washington, D.C. on Monday, when a 34-year-old man reportedly suffering from serious mental illnesses opened fire in the Washington Navy Yard, resulting in 13 deaths, including his own.

Many details of the incident, including how the shooter, Aaron Alexis, obtained his weapons remained unclear Tuesday. What seems certain, however, is that yet another massacre has been carried out by someone who shouldn't have owned a water pistol, much less advanced weaponry and gobs of ammunition. Yet among the tougher gun laws that Congress still can't pass is a simple expansion of background checks to cover all gun sales. Such checks already exist for some purchases, but the gun lobby wants to make sure that avenues remain for any crackpot and potential killer to exercise their Second Amendment rights. Countless lives have been snuffed out as a result.

The gun-rights advocates insist that the bad guys will get their guns anyway, so why prevent the good guys from arming themselves to the teeth? They paint a picture of an America teeming with heroic citizens who could be poised to calmly halt would-be shootings merely by the threat of their own armed response - and be ready to fire if needed. In their eyes, gun control merely empowers the criminals, and leaves innocents unable to protect themselves. Give everyone guns, on the other hand, and it all balances out nicely and much of the violence would be neutralized.

Some truly believe such nonsense. But the real force behind the lobbying is, as always, money, and the protection of gun and ammunition manufacturers - and rich people who love their guns - who put profits before the victims of gun violence. The politicians listen, grab the money, and put their own self-interest before the victims of gun violence.

The gun-control debate cannot lurch forward with every mass shooting and then be allowed to fade away. If the destruction of a classroom of kids in Connecticut can't slap enough sense into our legislators even to expand background checks or chip away at the size of high-capacity ammunition magazines, then no single incident will. The battle to tighten gun controls has to be unrelenting, waged in part by politicians brave enough to reject the stupidity of the National Rifle Association and its like, even if it jeopardizes their seats.

There are sensible, gun-control measures on the table that should have been easily approved long ago, measures that can only help to reduce gun violence. They should be passed now. That they haven't been already says volumes about our nation's leadership - none of it good.

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Tighten gun laws, restore some sanity

Another mass shooting, another round of calls for tightening gun controls, and another round of mind-numbing foolishness from a gun lobby arguing that more guns will reduce the violence, and that

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